Which Country Gives you the Most Bang for your Buck?

Planning a Golf Trip to Europe?

At Leadingcourses.com we’re crazy about stats. We love digging into all the data provided by golfers that use our platform. It’s a vicious circle, because with the data provided by golfers, we create new, interesting information for golfers. This time we bring you the best, and “worst” countries in Europe to play golf.

A lot of golfers visit Leadingcourses.com to plan their golf holiday. In Europe most golfers end up going to “the usual suspects”: Spain, Portugal and Turkey. But are those countries actually the best ones to go to when it comes down to quantity, quality and price? Our recent study shows that the answer to that question is a resounding no!

Wales Gets you the Most Bang for you Buck!

So where do you get the best quality for the least amount of money, or to rephrase that, where do you get the most bang for your buck? Quite surprisingly the study shows that the country you should be visiting on your next golf holiday is not any of the above mentioned usual suspects, but it is Great Britain’s Wales!

Newport’s Celtic Manor Resort

Wales offers a staggering 850 miles of raw and rugged coastline, home to world-class links golf. But there’s more than just links golf. Newport’s Celtic Manor Resort, venue of the Ryder Cup in 2010 is just one of around 174 courses (120 of them 18 holes or more) all packed into a country that’s just 60 miles wide and 170 miles long. With an average rating of 7,88 on Leadingcourses.com and an average green fee of a mere $28,-, Wales absolutely offers the most bang for your buck!

Northern Ireland, England Also Score Well

It’s not just Wales that does well in our bang for your buck index. Northern Ireland – home country of golf superstar Rory McIlroy – scores almost just as well as Wales. Their average green fee price is the same as in Wales, they just score a little lower in average course rating. With Royal County Down and Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland has two world class golf courses but many of the lesser known courses are also definitely worth a visit.

Centurion Club

England is a pure Valhalla in terms of number of golf courses. With more than 1500 (18+ hole) golf courses to choose from the options to play golf are endless. Whether it’s exclusive courses like Wentworth and Centurion Club, Open Championship links courses like Royal St Georges and Royal Lytham & St Annes or a Rock star owned, low priced course like The Astbury, there is a golf course for everyone.

Going to Sweden? The Cost of Living is High but Golfing is ‘Cheap’!

It turns out that the best place to live as a golfer is Sweden! That’s right, Sweden is not only a great country to travel to for a round of golf, living there is quite neat as well.

We’ve compared the price of a Big Mac in a country with the price of a green fee. This is called the ‘Big Mac Index’. The price of a Big Mac in Sweden is $ 5,90 and an average 18 holes week day green fee costs $45,-. That means you only need 7,45 Big Mac’s to pay for your green fee! So Swedes pay the least when looking at their cost of living. Even though the cost of living is high, you still get good value for your hard earned dollar in Sweden because the average green fee price in Europe is $65,-!

Good Weather Comes at a Price

Have you recovered from the “shock” that Wales is your new go to place when it comes to golf holidays and Sweden is the best country to live in? Well you’re in for another shocker. Remember those three countries we mentioned at the start ? The ones everybody visits year in, year out? Well they’re at the very bottom of the list. That’s right, Spain, Turkey and Portugal offer you the least bang for your buck.

Although a Big Mac costs the least in Turkey – $3 – the average green fee is a staggering $112,-. That means paying for the average green fee would mean the same as having to buy 36 Big Mac’s! If you are not planning to play very often you can use this price difference to your advantage! But, for Turkish golfers it’s the least attractive to play golf in their own country.

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